


Two bros chilling in a hot tub five feet apart cuz they're not gay

by serendipitous_rambles



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-06 23:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12221238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipitous_rambles/pseuds/serendipitous_rambles
Summary: Lucas and Will are not dating. They're just friends. Just two dudes being guys, just two guys being dudes.When the question of Homecoming arises, both agree to go together as friends, but will that complicate their already complicated relationship?





	1. We're just friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a Byclair focus fic but there's also going to be some focus on Mileven and maybe minor details about Max/Dustin. Basically all my ships but this is dedicated to Lucas and Will.

**1988**

 

"So Lucas, who are you taking to Homecoming?" Dustin nudged him, nodding his head in the direction of Will who was talking to El in the line for lunch.

"Dustin please." Lucas rolled his eyes. "It's not like that."

"It's not? Tell me why you're always looking at him with those eyes." Dustin smirked. "Not to mention you gave him your jacket yesterday."

"What? He was cold and I wasn't wearing it. I was just being friendly." Lucas raised his hands in defense.

"Friendly my ass." Dustin pointed a finger at Lucas from across the table. "Where have we heard that before? Oh I don't know maybe Mike when he was _crushing_ on Eleven."

"Hey, don't drag me into this." Mike awkwardly looked away remembering his silly school boy crush. It had worked out though, after being a mumbling mess for a few years, he finally asked her out officially.

"Oh please, Mike's just a love sick puppy. I was just helping a friend."

 Max laughed, "Yeah right, like how Mike was just "helping out a friend" when I caught him and El behind the bleachers last week."

"This isn't about me!" Mike folded his arms. "This is about Lucas and Will practically dating but won't admit it."

"It's different and you know it. We're not dating, we're friends. So just drop it." Lucas shut everyone up.

"Drop what?" Will's voice broke the silence.

"Nothing." Lucas said quickly suddenly becoming all too aware of Will moving to sit beside him.

Eleven sat down next to Mike, smiling at him. The curly haired boy couldn't tear his eyes away. Lucas felt a strange feeling of jealousy? Anger? He couldn't quite put his finger on it but the way Mike looked at El stirred feelings within him. Briefly he allowed himself to look at Will and then immediately turned away again.

_Stop it. You don't like Will like that. He's your friend. That's it. Just your friend._

"We're just talking about Homecoming." Dustin said, ignoring the glare Lucas sent him.

"Oh, yeah I don't think I'm going this year." Will looked down at his tray.

"What?" Lucas burst out, causing everyone to turn to him with confused looks on their faces. "I uh, I mean why, why not?" He awkwardly rested his hand on his chin, trying to seem casual.

"Well, Mike and El are going together." Mike wrapped an arm around El's shoulders. "And this year Max and Dustin are going together so I'm just going to be awkwardly single. I think it's best to just skip this year." Will shrugged.

"I don't have a date." Lucas said - a little too quickly. "I mean, we could go together. As friends."

Will smiled. "Really? You don't have to do that for me." 

"No, no I don't want to be awkward either. So we could go as friends. Just two bros at the dance." Lucas mentally slapped himself. When has he ever said "bro"? 

Will laughed, "haha, ok. Thanks Lucas." He patted the other boy on the shoulder. Lucas ignored the weird feeling in his stomach he felt when Will's hand touched his shoulder. He was just getting sick probably, the school food wasn't great. Yeah that's it, the school food just giving him a weird belly ache.

"Hey, uh Will? Can I talk to you? It's about this stupid science assignment." A girl from Will's science class came to their table.

"Oh yeah, sure. Be right back." He stood up and Lucas found his eyes following the boy.

Will had said something and the girl was laughing, touching his arm and twirling her hair. Is she serious?

"Dude, you're staring." Dustin's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? No I'm not, not staring." Lucas looked back at his lunch.

Max giggled quietly to herself and Lucas blushed. "Dude...you got it baaaad." She sang.

"Shut up. We're just friends. I've told you before and I'll say it again. We're going to Homecoming but: _as friends_." He emphasised the last part.

"Then stop staring at him. You look like Mike."

"Can we stop mocking me? It's only Monday." Mike burried his head on his arm and leant face down on the table. El played with his curls.

"You guys don't know what you're talking about. You know what? We're done talking about this because you can't seem to understand that me and Will are just friends. That's it." Lucas stood up, emptied his tray into the bin and left the cafeteria. His friends didn't know when to let things go.

What a ridiculous idea. Him and Will _dating_. He didn't want to admit that he got this weird, almost sickening feeling whenever Will was around. He tried to avoid being alone with Will when possible, that feeling growing ever stronger. 

Sure, he liked Will a lot, they were best friends. And yeah he was there for Will in ways perhaps the others weren't but that didn't mean they _liked_ each other or were dating. Did it?


	2. Do you like someone?

"Hello?" Mike stood up from the couch to answer the phone, feeling El's hand leave his as he walked away.

"Mike, it's Lucas." Lucas sounded nervous.

"You ok man?" Mike turned to El and mouthed "Lucas" when she wondered who it was.

"Yeah uh actually I needed to talk to you."

"Ok... what about?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone and he thought Lucas had gone.

"Lucas? You still there?"

El came up behind him and hugged him from behind, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah just... forget it actually. It's stupid I don't know why I called."

"Wait! If this is about lunch earlier we're really sorry. We didn't mean to upset you."

"No it's, it's sort of about lunch but not that. I wanted some advice but now that I'm actually saying it out loud I realise how stupid it is and I'm just going to pretend this didn't happen." Lucas was about to hang up the phone but Mike pressed him.

"Ah come on Lucas. You can talk to me." El moved round to face Mike, looking worried about Lucas. "You know we're here for you, all of us whenever you need anything."

Lucas took a deep breath and spoke just above a whisper. "How did..." He hesitated before finishing. "How did you know you _liked_ El?"

Mike froze and glanced towards El. She furrowed her eyebrows but he turned away from her.

"Uh, well. That's difficult." Mike suddenly felt awkward having Eleven there. 

He didn't want to talk about his feelings. There had been an awkward time between the ages of 14/15 where they had darted around their feelings. They had had that brief moment in 1984 but nothing was ever "official". They had told everyone they were friends but there was always something more. Mike only recently getting the courage to fully admit his feelings in a way she understood. It had been a year and things were good, he didn't want to freak her out by talking about his feelings in front of her.

 "Is it a bad time? Shall I call back later?"

"No it's just..." Mike turned to look at his girlfriend who had gone and sat back down on the couch. "I guess I always did, you know?"

He spoke quietly in to the phone but El wasn't paying attention anymore. "I think, I get this feeling in my stomach wherever we're together and whenever she enters the room it's like no one else is there, she's all I can look at." He was thankful Lucas see his blush.

"Ok thanks." Lucas needed to go figure things out.

"Hang on, why did you want to know? Are you... do you like someone?" 

"What? No..." His voice was high pitched.

"Lucas, friends don't lie."

"You and your stupid morals." Lucas whispered under his breath. "Fine, yes. No? I don't know I need to think things out. But even if I did...I don't want to ruin whatever we have now. I like being their friend and I can't jepordise that."

"It's Will."

Lucas didn't say anything so Mike decided to keep talking. 

"Look, me and El were friends but it turned into something better. You can't let that fear stop you from doing what you want. You could be missing out on the greatest love in the world but you won't know. If you don't go for it, you'll find yourself regretting it for the rest of your life."

"I'm scared Mike." Lucas had never admitted that before. He had always been the brave, tough one of the group. But now...

"That's how you know you really care."

"Thanks Mike."

"No problem buddy."


	3. I need to tell you something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be a one shot but it turned into like, a 3 parter so here's the final chapter.

Max and Dustin were first to arrive at the dance, Dustin's tie matched her red dress. It was still a little awkward between them, they'd only recently started dating a month or two before the dance but there had been a long time of mutual pining until Max was brave and admitted she liked Dustin and his stupid smile. 

Mike had driven Eleven to the dance, even buying her a corsage (which Nancy had helped him pick out.) They met up with Dustin and Max, but Lucas and Will were no where to be seen.

"Where are they?" Mike used his height as an advantage to see over the heads of students dancing. "I can't see them anywhere."

* * *

 

Back at the Byers' house, Lucas was waiting for Will. He was still in the bathroom.

"Hey, Will, we're gonna be late." He leaned against the door.

"Alright, alright." Will opened the door and Lucas' breath caught in his throat. He looked adorable in that suit but the tie was a mess.

"Come here. Your tie is awful." Lucas laughed and gestured for Will to come closer.

He began to adjust Will's tie, not daring to look into his eyes. His touch lingered. "Uh, Will I have...I have something to tell you." He whispered.

Will's gaze met his, bright and curious. "Yeah?"

He let out a nervous laughter, "I uh...I really like..." The words got stuck in his throat and he couldn't say them. Will was looking at him expectantly but Lucas couldn't do it. He just couldn't get the words out.

"Will? Aren't you boys going to be late?" Joyce had just returned home from work.

Lucas and Will jumped apart. "Yeah, we should uh, we should probably go." Will pointed to the door.

"Yeah, yeah I think we should."

* * *

 

The dance was going well, Lucas and Dustin were locked in a dance battle most of the night leaving Max and Will betting on who would give up first. Mike was trying to teach El how to do the robot but it just ended with them in fits of giggles.

When a slow song came on, Mike grabbed El's hand and spun her around, being his usual cheesy self. Max was the one to pull Dustin towards her leaving Will and Lucas awkwardly sat on the sidelines. They watched their friends; there was an unspoken tension between them.

"What were you going to say earlier?" Will hesitantly broke the silence.

"Sorry?" Lucas looked at him, heart pounding.

"What were you going to say. You know before..."

"Oh." Lucas blushed. Was he really going to do this? In that moment Mike's words came to him again.

_"You could be missing out on the greatest love in the world but you won't know. If you don't go for it, you'll find yourself regretting it for the rest of your life."_

Taking a deephe looked Will in the eyes. If he didn't say it, he'd regret it. 

"I wanted to say that," it was hard. He looked down and took one of Will's hands deciding to just go for it. "That, I _like_ you Will."

Will looked at their hands.

"I have for a while now and I know this is going to ruin our friendship but I knew that if I didn't tell you, I'd keep on repeating the words I should have said and I'd regret it for the rest of my life." Lucas blurted out, anxiously watching for Will's reaction.

Before he knew it, Will had leaned in and gently pressed his lips to his.

"Wait, you...?" Lucas grinned and Will smiled back.

"I really like you too."

"I knew it!" Dustin shouted from across the room, people turning to stare at the curly haired boy.

Lucas and Will turned round to see their friends smiling, Mike gave him a thumbs up.

It was no use denying it, they were dating. And they couldn't be happier.


End file.
